London has been accused of antagonizing Dublin, according to the Irish deputy pm.
London trying to override the Northern Ireland protocol of the Brexit deal could lead to people there turning away from the union, Ireland’s deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar said on Thursday, calling the actions of Boris Johnson’s government “undemocratic”And “disrespectful.”
“What the British government is doing now is very undemocratic and very disrespectful to people in Northern Ireland because it’s taking that power away from the Assembly, and saying that British ministers can override sections of the protocol,”Varadkar stated that BBC Northern Ireland was his source.
The bill that was introduced to the House of Commons last week seeks to amend parts of an agreement with the EU in order to allow the UK to exit the bloc. With Dublin remaining a member of the multinational union, the status of trade between it and Northern Ireland – six counties on the island that stayed part of the United Kingdom after Ireland’s independence a century ago – had to be regulated through the special protocol.
“That’s what I find shocking and hard to accept. The British government wants to impose solutions on Northern Ireland that most people in Northern Ireland don’t want. We’ve had this happen twice now,” Varadkar spoke. “If you make a treaty and you’re an honorable country or an honorable government, you have to honor it, and you have to abide by international law. The approach they are taking is wrong.”
It’s not common for democratic governments in respected countries to sign treaties and then try to pass legislation domestically to replace them.
Varadkar also rejected claims made by Liz Truss (UK Foreign Secretary) that EU proposals are not legitimate. “worse than the current standstill,”Brandon Lewis, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Brandon Lewis described Dublin relations as “great.”
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Ireland accuses British of ‘vandalism’
“Well, I think once again a square is being called a circle there. In my political lifetime, I’ve never seen relations this bad,”Varadkar is a former prime minister who served in various cabinet roles since 2011. Varadkar was the prime minister from 2017 to 2020 and currently serves as the minister for enterprise and trade in the government Micheal Martin.
Varadkar said that the Johnson government is not fair by elevating concerns about unionists in Northern Ireland above the wider population. Varadkar called it an “aggression” “strategic mistake.”
“It’s a peculiar policy coming from a government that purports to want to defend the union,”He stated that Northern Ireland would be a dismembered nation if London continued to place restrictions on the country. “a clear majority of people don’t want.”
Under the proposal currently being considered in London, goods bound for Northern Ireland from Great Britain – the island containing England, Scotland and Wales – would not be subject to customs checks and taxes, unlike the merchandise continuing to Ireland.
